Written by

| A Journal News editorial

Gov. Andrew Cuomo gives highlights of his State of State and his budget address for 2013 during a speech at the Pascack Community Center in Nanuet. The governor's proposed Women's Equality Act includes the Reproductive Health Act. / Seth Harrison/The Journal News

Coming up

In an Editorial Spotlight interview at 3:30 p.m. Thursday, state Sen. Andrea Stewart-Cousins will discuss the proposed Reproductive Health Act. To watch, go to www.lohud.com/editorialspotlight; to submit a question or comment during the live session, engage the “CoverItLive” blogging feature; and to make a comment in advance, visit the Opinion Exchange blog at http://opinionexchange.lohudblogs.com, reach us via Twitter @LoHudOpinion or email us at adelgado@lohud.com. RHA changes

Current New York law now limits abortion at 24 weeks of fetal gestation, with the only exception being when the mother’s life is in danger. The Reproductive Health Act would update the law to consider “fetal viability,” which differs with each pregnancy. Also, abortion would be permissible if a woman’s health or life is at risk. The act would also shift abortion oversight from criminal laws to public health laws, where all other medical oversight is provided. This allows doctors to make choices about how to care for their patients without worrying about criminal prosecution for making reasoned medical decisions, based on their patients’ medical needs. And, the law would ensure access to contraception. Nationally, more than 1,000 regulations were introduced in 2012 to limit access to reproductive health care.

Anti-abortion activists and supporters of legal abortion stand in front of the Supreme Court in Washington on Jan. 25, on the 40th anniversary of the landmark Roe v. Wade decision that legalized abortion. / AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite

More

ADVERTISEMENT

The proposed Reproductive Health Act, part of Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s far ranging Women’s Equality Act, aims to update the state’s decades-old contraception and abortion law. The bill is sponsored in the Senate by Sen. Andrea Stewart-Cousins, D-Yonkers. Unsurprisingly, the measure has generated no small amount of controversy.

The bill is being attacked by anti-abortion activists as too radical. They charge — overstating the case — that the proposal would allow any abortion, at any time, for any reason. Backers of the Reproductive Health Act say the measure merely preserves rights now granted under federal law and precedents — rights not spelled out in the narrowly tailored state law, crafted some 43 years ago.

Clarity, however, is not the only concern — a point crystallized during the interminable Republican primary for president, when the hopefuls ran on anti-abortion platforms. A different outcome in November might have foreshadowed still more change in the Supreme Court’s view on abortion law. Even before the presidential election, abortion rights have been under attack. Since the rise of the Tea Party in the 2010 election, there has been a nationwide spike in measures aimed at further restricting abortion rights.

“There are concerted efforts in Washington and across the nation to roll back, limit or eliminate access to reproductive health care, and New Yorkers clearly hold as a core value a woman making her own personal, private health-care decisions,” M. Tracey Brooks, president and CEO of Family Planning Advocates of New York State, told the Editorial Board.

Outdated

New York’s abortion laws were passed in 1970 — before the landmark U.S. Supreme Court ruling in Roe vs. Wade. The 1973 case established a woman’s right to abortion access; subsequent high court decisions have also helped shape access to reproductive health care. One vestige of New York’s 1970 abortion laws is that they are still under the criminal code rather than in public health law, which provides oversight for other medical procedures. This can scare off medical providers, and leave women without access to medical care, especially when a woman is seeking an abortion later in pregnancy because her health is at risk.

(Page 2 of 3)

Even though federal precedent makes clear that abortion later in pregnancy is allowed if a woman’s life or health are at risk, the narrow New York statute only specifies the risk to a woman’s life.

“Criminalizing the delivery of health care has made doctors and hospitals concerned about providing the best health care to a woman.” Brooks said. The concern about criminal prosecution has been so worrisome that the New York Civil Liberties Union has intervened, at times, to seek assurances from local district attorneys that a medical provider wouldn’t be prosecuted under criminal code for performing a late-term abortion. Nationwide, the number of abortion providers has decreased, and only a few doctors acknowledge performing abortions late in pregnancy.

Late-term lightning rod

Late-term abortion has become the lightning rod of the Reproductive Health Act. Current New York law limits abortion at 24 weeks of fetal gestation, with the only exception being when the mother’s life is in danger. The Reproductive Health Act would update the law to consider “fetal viability,” which differs with each pregnancy. Also, abortion would be permissible if a woman’s health or life is at risk.

The discussion of late-term abortion can be uncomfortable. But the procedures are rare. Most abortions — 88 percent — occur in the first 12 weeks of pregnancy. Abortions later in pregnancy often occur among younger women who don’t undergo prenatal testing, and then are faced with difficult decisions when fetal abnormalities are present, or health risks to the mother are discovered. While abortions are statistically safe, “risk to the patient goes up as the gestational age goes up,” Dr. Robert Hecht, assistant professor of obstetrics and gynecology at Albert Einstein College of Medicine, told The Journal News.

That was underscored by the recent death of a New Rochelle woman in Maryland. Anti-abortion activists have publicized her death, and attributed it to a botched late-term abortion; Operation Rescue leaders are seeking to file a complaint against the doctor involved in the Maryland case. Their contention is that substandard care led to the woman’s death, therefore, late-term abortions should be completely banned. The Maryland medical examiner is investigating the woman’s death. Operation Rescue also intervened in a New Mexico case, in which another New York woman died after seeking a late-term abortion after severe fetal brain abnormalities were detected. The New Mexico Medical Board this month exonerated the doctor of gross negligence.

(Page 3 of 3)

Safe access

While Stewart-Cousins is the main sponsor in the Senate, the Reproductive Health Act has yet to be introduced in the Assembly this session. “This is legislation that would codify that the choices that women make during these times are personal choices,” Stewart-Cousins told our Albany Bureau. “They’re certainly not frivolous choices, but they should be choices that are made between the woman and her doctor.”

Brooks, of Family Planning Advocates, said that now is the time to address New York’s outdated abortion laws, especially as more states attempt to limit contraception and abortion access and pressure continues for national change. “The brave men and women of the Legislature in 1970 passed this landmark legislation,” she said. “And now we are asking the Legislature of 2013 to now make it consistent with federal law precedent and current medical practice.”

New York needs to keep abortion safe, legal and rare. To achieve that goal, it is past time for the Legislature to review, and update, a 43-year-old law that lags behind the rights and protections set forth in the federal precedents.